Ards and Down Area Plan 2015Preamble: Anti Poverty and Social Inclusion Strategy

The Department is committed to implementing Lifetime Opportunities - the Government's Anti-Poverty and Social Inclusion Strategy for Northern Ireland which is structured around a number of general challenges which become the priorities for future policy and action. These are as follows:

Eliminating poverty;

Eliminating social exclusion;

Tackling area based deprivation;

Eliminating poverty from rural areas;

Shared futures - shared challenges;

Tackling inequality in the labour market;

Tackling health inequalities; and

Tackling cycles of deprivation.

The Strategy recognises different priorities at different stages in people's lives and the need for policies and programmes to be tailored to these specific needs and targeted at those in greatest objective need. Departmental spending plans and resources and directly linked to the delivery of commitments within the strategy in order to achieve the goals and targets within Lifetime Opportunities.

Planning Service is not a major spending Agency. However, one of the main functions of a development plan is to facilitate development and create a land use framework that will allow investment to take place. The Plan seeks to implement the Strategy through specific objectives, policies and proposals.

Nothing in the Plan should be read as a commitment that public resources will be provided for any specific project. All proposals for expenditure by the Department are subject to economic appraisal and will also have to be considered having regard to the overall availability of resources.